Many types of craft projects require precise drawing or cutting of parallel lines, grids, or straight-sided geometrical shapes. Quilting involves sewing together many pieces of fabric to form a quilt or wall hanging. The fabric pieces are usually strips, rectangles or triangles cut to particular shapes and sizes. Because a large number of fabric pieces go into a quilt, each piece must be cut accurately to prevent errors in size of the fabric pieces. Failure to prevent such errors could result in a finished article that may not have the correct shape or size. In addition, inaccurately cut fabric pieces result in a needless waste of fabric and time. Blocks and strips of fabric for quilting are currently cut by placing the fabric upon a cutting pad, measuring with a ruler, manually holding a straightedge, and cutting against the straightedge with a cutting device. This method is slow and does not provide highly accurate cuts, because it is difficult to get a precise alignment manually, because it is time consuming and difficult to use a separate ruler to measure when cutting, and because the straightedge can easily slip under the user's hand during cutting. This method is also unsuitable for cutting many layers of fabric, and for repeat cutting of multiple pieces such as strips, squares or triangles.
A device described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,549 (Apparatus for Holding Flat Articles for Cutting) has a straightedge that operates similar to a drafting table and eliminates most of the problems associated with manually securing the straightedge for drawing or cutting. In the commercial product sold under said patent, a measuring arm attached to a straightedge assembly is slideably engaged to rails on the base board. The measuring arm on this device is limited to 90° and 45° settings and does not freely move to any angle with the straightedge, thus restricting its use.
In German Patent No. DE 30 05 422 A1, a device is described that will measure a distance from the straightedge with the straightedge set at any angle, but this device is limited in the width of measurement and restricts access to the edge of the straightedge for drawing or cutting. The German device uses a turnable “adjustment piece” combined with a “guiding element” that slides along the ruler. This device is designed to measure from the edge of a ruler for the drawing of hatched lines. This design will not allow the use of a cutting device along the ruler without removing the “guiding element” for each cut.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,423,786, a pivotable T-square device has a secondary ruler slideably engaged in an alignment slot along the longitudinal axis of the main ruler and extending at right angles to said ruler. This secondary ruler measures at right angles from the edge of the straightedge, but does not allow access to the edge of the main straightedge for drawing or cutting.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,045,695, a similar problem arises. A secondary ruler, slideably engaged to the main straightedge can be used when the straightedge is angled, but does not allow access to the straightedge for drawing or cutting along its length.
Similarly in U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,351, the device employs a secondary, adjustable ruler at right angles to the main straightedge. This secondary ruler can measure a distance from the main ruler, however, it unduly restricts access to the main straightedge for drawing or cutting.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,238 discloses a device that aligns and measures from an edge at various angles, but has no means to measure a secondary measurement from the edge of the main straightedge.
Numerous other examples of measuring, drawing and cutting aids are known in the existing art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,304 (Underwood 1984), U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,409 (Kimoto 1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,807 (Ilagan 1999), U.S. Pat. No. 1,045,695 (Goldwater 1912) U.S. Pat. No. 2,423,786 (Morris 1947), U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,238 (Rahnfeld 1993), U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,524 (King 1988), U.S. Pat. No. 1,381,808 (Davis 1921), U.S. Pat. No. 227,844 (Salot 1880), U.S. Pat. No. 58,056 (Bronson 1866), U.S. Pat. No. 1,773,809 (Elder 1930) and U.S. Pat. No. 591,964 (Gilcrest 1897), provide examples of protractor, straightedge, drawing instrument combinations in the existing art. These prior art devices, however, generally do not provide a way to measure from the edge of the straightedge while the straightedge is angled while also providing unrestricted access to the edge of the straightedge for drawing or cutting. Therefore, there is a continuing need for devices providing this capability for applications such as quilting or other crafts where repeated, accurate, parallel cuts or lines are made.